[Peace-discuss] Sitrep

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

‎"America’s problems are huge: 14 million Americans officially  
looking for jobs—about four job seekers for every job vacancy; 8.8  
million part-time workers since the recession began; roughly 2.6  
million people too discouraged even to look for a job: total – about  
25 million people needing work or more work and an economy that is  
creating no new jobs...

"Business will not hire more workers until it has more sales.  
Consumers will not spend more until they’ve got more jobs.

"You can find America’s future in blueprints minted in business- 
funded think tanks 30 to 40 years ago at the dawn of the neo-liberal  
age: destruction of organized labor; attrition of the social safety  
net; attrition of government regulation; a war on the poor, fought  
without mercy at every level. Last year the New York police stopped  
and questioned 601,055 people, predominantly blacks and Hispanics, and  
the numbers were up 13 per cent for the first six months of this year...

"The middle class has – at least two thirds of it – crashed into  
hard times. Americans’ store of value and savings – the house –  
is worthless; the always pathetic social safety net has eroded. Thirty  
million Americans are without work or working part-time. Nearly 6  
million manufacturing jobs in the United States have disappeared since  
2000, and more than 40,000 factories have closed. African-Americans  
have endured the greatest loss in collective assets in their history.  
Hispanics have seen their net worth drop by two-thirds. Millions of  
whites have been pitchforked into desperation. Students emerge from  
higher education crushed by debt.

"This is the mulch that has created the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"Its strength lies in the simplicity and truth of its basic message:  
the few are rich, the many are poor. In terms of its pretensions the  
capitalist system has failed.

"Having briefly tasted batons and pepper spray, OWSers should know  
that when capital feels it is being pushed to the wall, it will stop  
at nothing to crush any serious challenge. The cop puts away his  
smile. The indulgent mayor imposes a curfew. 'Exemplary' sentences are  
handed down. The prisons fill up. The FBI dusts off the Cointelpro  
blueprint. Organized repression can only be defeated by organized  
resistance, nationwide. How to mount this is the OWSers’ long-term  
challenge. These are very early days in the formation of the movement.  
In Oakland, on Wednesday, OWS staged a rally calling for a General  
Strike. That was optimism of the intelligence. That was most certainly  
thinking along the right lines..."

--from the following, the best short summary of 2011 I've seen:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/30/goodbye-to-2011-year-of-the-rabbit-welcome-2012-year-of-the-dragon/

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